Do not search anymore. The seats in the stands for the next four illuminated corsos and for the five flower battles have already been sold out. Only a few entries are still available in the pedestrian zone to enjoy the show, standing up, by February 26. After three years complicated by the pandemic, the Nice Carnival 2023 opened on Saturday with an “exceptional level of reservations”. “It’s quite unprecedented that everything is complete so quickly, even before the start of the event, and for all dates”, explained the organizers behind the scenes.
Designed around the theme of “treasures of the world”, after the city was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2021, the floats have already been seen by more than 36,000 people, in the afternoon, during an inaugural and anniversary parade, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the event, then in the evening, during their second outing. The reception capacity is 18,000 visitors per procession and 16,000 for the flower battles.
Travel around the world and Gafam
On the spot, Saturday evening, the revelers therefore had the banana. “We all really wanted to see the crowded stands after these complicated years,” said Jean-Pierre Povigna, of the France festivities company, who worked on ten of the sixteen corsos floats this year. Including those of the king and queen, embarked on a veritable world tour of monuments: Colosseum, Taj Mahal and pyramid for him, Sphynx and pagoda for her, transformed into a Hindu deity.
Travel, travel in the parade. Spectators zap from Greece to China, from Italy to the gardens of Babylon, with legendary creatures, a dragon here, Medusa there or even a phoenix. But the stars of the party are also very local with a float dedicated to the heritage of Nice and another in the colors of the city of perfumes in Grasse (whose know-how has also been listed as a UNESCO heritage site).
On the other hand, no big heads in the effigy of politicians on the horizon… Has the irreverent carnival taken a hit on the (big) head? No, the revelers have chosen other targets this year: Sundar Pichai (Google), Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Tim Cook (Apple), Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook, Meta) and Elon Musk (Tesla, SpaceX), the bosses of Gafam, these among the most powerful companies on the planet, are caricatured and represented manipulated like puppets above a well-known board game board. And On a tank with the unequivocal name: Monopofric.